running circles
by tomato machine
Summary: She has no idea what to call this, and doesn't know whether she should be concerned, or the least bit alarmed at how comfortable this routine has become. A plot without a point, just a bunch of smooth turns. Akiyama Mio x Tainaka Ritsu


title: running circles  
c/p: Akiyama Mio x Tainaka Ritsu  
notes: Just go with the flow.

Enter Akiyama Mio, twenty-five years old, account for a company manufacturing mechanical pencils. Given, it wasn't a glamorous job, but the benefits were pretty decent.

Once, or twice -depending on schedule and time constraint- every few weeks, a former member of the Light Music Club would drag her - at times forcibly- out of her shell to "_Have some fun." _

Mostly, they leave it up to Ritsu, because that's just how some things are. Azusa respects Mio too much to force her into anything, while Mugi is far too polite to cause a scene.

…Yui keeps storming the wrong office.

Besides, Ritsu would get the most amusing results.

Mio has long since learnt this sessions involved long hours of karaoke, then getting pissed drunk.

After which, Mio would be burdened with the tiresome task of getting Ritsu back home.

With a heavy flop onto the bed, Ritsu, inebriated, giggling mass of a best friend, is delivered safely, back to the comforts of her own bed. All without so much as a scratch on her wide forehead. Mio's pretty proud of this. The last time, they had gotten into a verbal argument with her neighbor's Doberman.

"Alright, I'm heading home now."

Mio's learnt that it won't do to leave her on her front porch. An inebriated Ritsu is capable of many, many things. Too many, in fact. All of which involving some degree of shenanigans.

There is a thoughtful pause, then, "Don't do anything crazy, okay?"

"Ehhh? You're leaving?"

Ritsu makes a wild grab for her hand. The degree of precision in which she grasps it in the dark room would make any drunkard person proud. "Don't go..."

There is a loud whine, followed by a long and drawling, "Miooo..."

She continues to tug at her sleeve.

The thing with knowing someone forever is that you know them all to well - quirks and flaws, idiosyncrasies and all manner of weaknesses in-between. Mio never really stood a chance.

Mio sighs and visibly deflates.

"...Fine. But only until you fall sleep."

She looks back at Ritsu and huffs.

Ritsu's grin is one of victory.

She sits down, props her head back against the mattress and glances around the room. In the dark she can make out the sparse furnishings, the miscellaneous articles of clothing strewn haphazardly about the place. At a far corner of the room, a Yamaha Hipgig glints yellow and gold under dim lights spilling through the window.

_She really hasn't changed at all_. Mio chuckles, nostalgia tinged and somewhat ashamed.

She glances down at her hand -the free one- and frowns. Her own fingertips have gone soft and squishy. She can't remember the last time she's played her bass.

_How many years has it been?_

Mio sighs -resigned and still ashamed- and inclines her head to look at Ritsu - three minutes in, and already asleep. Then she reaches out and brushes away stray strands of auburn hair with her free hand.

It's more impulse than anything else.

The warmth of her face is an aftereffect of the alcohol, that's what she tells herself.

There is an aching familiarity to all this, one she can't help but fall back into.

It's like they're back in high school again, and she draws comfort from this. Like the feeling that throbs in the back of her head (that aches in her chest) whenever she drinks tea with fine china or hears a teeny-bop pop song play over the radio.

Technically, it was already morning, and she should really be going. She was planning to finish up some work in the office…

But there's something - the soft, rhythmic breathing in the background, and Ritsu's hand, still in hers - that has Mio's eyelids drooping shut.

She wakes up the next morning with a crick in her neck and Ritsu's breath in her ear. Her breath resembles that of a dead woodland animal.

"Boo."

"Uwah!"

There is a jolt, then another knee-jerk reaction that has Ritsu sprawled across her bed sporting a massive lump on the back of her head.

Mio puts a hand over her chest in an attempt to slow down her jackhammering heart.

Moments pass by in complete silence.

Mio bites her lip in worry, chances a cautious prod, "Ritsu?"

And then-

"Banzai!"

Honestly, she should have known better by now.

Ritsu pounces on her like… well, a dog on high.

Maps out her weak points and assails her sides with tickles.

"Say I'm is awesome!"

"No!"

"Say it!"

"I'm awesome!''

"Hmph! Your impudence will cost you dearly, Mio-chan!"

Ritsu is faster, but smaller, and Mio's learnt that if she can get her hands pinned, all she needs to do is sit on her to win.

She does just that. Except Ritsu's squirming too much for her to sit on, so she resorts instead to anchoring her in place with her body weight. And well, with Ritsu's hands pinned and both their faces extremely flushed, it results in a very… compromising position.

This happens more often then you'd think. Which is, admittedly, pretty darn often. The reason they've yet to resolve any of the uhh, tension, is because something always seems to crop up.

Like say, right now, for instance, when Ritsu's face turns from flushed pink to an interesting shade of green.

"Erk."

Mio rolls quickly off, and Ritsu makes an awkward -somewhat hilarious- stumble to her bathroom.

It turns out, as funky as Ritsu's metabolism is, even she isn't spared the aftereffects of downing one bucketload of the cheapest booze concoction money could buy.

It ends with Ritsu retching into the porcelain depths, while Mio combs back auburn hair over an adorably large forehead and rubs soothing circles into her back.

Mio's cooing her disapproval and wearing one of those amused and resigned smiles reserved especially for Ritsu.

Nothing's been resolved and nothing's changed, not really. But for now it doesn't really matter.

Sometimes, you just gotta throw away reason and longing and whatever else there is to throw and go with the flow.

Sometimes, you just gotta pluck your strings and drum a beat to whatever tune life wants you to play.

Ritsu recovers in record time, and they brush their teeth in her dingy, cramped little bathroom. Ritsu does a mustache impression that would do Mario proud.

Mio laughs till her sides ache and hits her over the head with her own toothbrush. She crashes over so often Ritsu should really just make her a key.

And then they make their way down the stairs to fix up something to eat even though all there's left in the fridge is leftover Okonomiyaki.

* * *

First Keion fic! How was it? Did I get their personalities?  
Sorry, guess its like PWP... without the sex. D:  
I have another fic in mind where everyone's drunk and Ritsu flirts with then flips off a cop on a dare to steal his hat, then everyone makes merry in jail. This may be the flu medicine talking. I apologize again. Reviews would be so awesome, but i respect whatever decision. Gotta sleep. Gotta study. Bye!


End file.
